ccvi GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



ists. Recent expeditions into the less-known portions of 

 New Guinea and adjoining islands have furnished nine forms 

 in all, of which six are said by Mr. Sclater to be now living in 

 the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London. Mr. Sclater 

 gives in Nature a brief synoptical table of the genus. The 

 memoir in full, with colored illustrations, appears in the Trans- 

 actions of the Zoological Society of London. 



Some notes on birds which have been found in Greenland 

 are communicated to the Ibis by Professor Newton. They 

 will prove of much interest to American ornithologists. A 

 new wren has been found in Florida by Mr. C. J. Maynard, 

 w T hich is described by Mr. Ridgway in the American Natural- 

 ist under the name of Thryothorus Ludovieianus. In color- 

 ation this strongly marked form closely resembles T. Berlan~ 

 clieri of the lower Rio Grande, but its size is much greater 

 than even the most northern examples of Ludovieianus 

 proper, while Berlandieri is smaller. Says Mr. Ridgway, 

 " It is very remarkable that the southern form of this bird 

 should be so much larger than the northern one, in direct 

 opposition to a recognized law of climatic variation; but we 

 have another case of this same exception to the rule in Ca- 

 therpes Jlexieanus, and its northern race, var. consjyersus" 

 These examples probably justify the suggestion made by 

 Ridgway that an exception to the rule of decrease in size 

 to the southward, in resident species, may be made in case of 

 families or groups of families, which have in temperate lati- 

 tudes only outlying genera or species, the increase in this 

 case being to the southward, or toward the region in which 

 the family or group is most highly developed. 



Comparative and detailed descriptions of JSTisus Cooperi 

 and N. Gundlachi are offered by Mr. Ridgway, who also 

 publishes in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia a monographic account of the Bu- 

 teonine subgenus Craxirex. 



A list of the birds of the Philippine Islands, numbering 

 ninety-six species, and greatly extending our knowledge of 

 the birds of the East Indies, is contributed by Viscount 

 Walden to the Transactions of the Zoological Society of 

 London. It is illustrated by eleven plates. 



Some unpublished drawings of the Dodo and other extinct 

 birds of Mauritius were exhibited by Professor Newton at a 



